Message from Associate Vice Chancellor of Enrollment Management and Director of Admissions

AVC Whittingham (left) talks with a student and her father at a recent event. Photo by Michael McCawley.

Dear Colleague,

I hope the new academic year is going well for you so far. Here at UC Santa Cruz, 2011-12 is already promising to be a busy year, as we are greeted with the excited faces of our many new students for fall (see the video here)! At the risk of repeating myself, I want to say again how happy I am to see that over 45 percent of our incoming frosh will be first-generation college graduates in their families. This bodes well for UCSC's continued accessibility, despite the state's budget challenges.

Another focus for this year will be aiding students in achieving the goal of graduating in four years or less (for frosh) or two years or less (for transfers). Timely graduation is better for the student, their family, and the university. Therefore, we will be working intensively as a campus to remove any stumbling blocks that may be preventing students from graduating in a timely manner.

In this issue of eSlug, we hope to provide some additional clarity on UC's new admissions requirements for fall 2012, especially as they pertain to UCSC admission and selection. We would also like to bring you up to date on changes to our academic programs, including an exciting new undergraduate major in robotics engineering.

By the way, this year we are celebrating the 25-year anniversary of our mascot, the Banana Slug! More than just a cute mascot, the Banana Slug represents many of the strongest elements of our campus: contemplation, flexibility, non-aggressiveness, and perhaps above all, an iconoclastic challenge toward the status quo. Go, Slugs!

We were delighted to host many of you at the UC Counselor Conference at UC Santa Cruz on September 10 (click here for photos!). Whether or not you made it to the conferences this year, we hope you or your students can join us at some of our Admissions events this fall, many of which are available from the convenience of your own computer: